Tech Beat: Tech savvy place bets on what's hot in 2012
The world of technology has once again converged on Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. YNN's Adam Balkin filed the following report.
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Four ballrooms side by side, filled with nearly 80 tech companies showing off hundreds of new and yet to be released products aimed at you. But believe it or not this huge event, CES Unveiled is just a teeny, tiny slice of a preview of the absolutely giant annual Consumer Electronics Show.
"This year it's over 30 football fields of exhibit space. No one can see the show in the four
days allotted to them. It's several miles of aisles, you just can't do it: 2,700 companies so you can't possibly spend even a minute at every one," said Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association.
If it has an on/off switch chances are it's in Las Vegas during CES week -- from products you've heard of to those that you might've never dreamed of like a WiFi/bluetooth, Internet connected Smart Baby Scale by Withings.
"It will transmit information, record it to your child profile. And so you'll be able to display all this information directly on your smartphone. It will compare to recommended values for your child at that age," said Cedric Hutchings of Withings.
It also converts to a toddler scale when baby is old enough to stand.
There's lots of fun stuff too like the Ion electric guitar that redefines what an electric guitar can be. The face of which is actually an iPad.
"You simply place your iPad 1 or iPad 2 into the guitar and using an app we're developing right now will have a person, interactive fun games, easy learning and the fretboard will actually light up and tell you where to put your fingers," said Jeff Fortin of Ion Audio.
Called the Guitar Apprentice, the same company has a similar type of device in its Piano Apprentice. So, if CES Unveiled is any indication as to what 2012 holds, it looks like not just more tech devices but also many more uses for the tech devices you may already own.